Taking shape

My functioning kitchen lasted from April 8th to May 8th.  Zach set up our utility sink, ovens, dishwasher, and microwave, and with my Instapot I was able to keep things pretty normal!

These got installed the 8th, and the templater came to measure for cabinets the next day.  Floform Countertops sat on their hands for a week, and then finally scheduled our installation for the 28th.  Kind of ironic that we've found help on KSL for free, even been paid by helpers, and all have been relatively professional.  The most costly service is these countertops, and the people at the Floform office were absolutely wishy-washy!

Zach wasted no time getting the rest of the flooring in.  I only helped for twenty minutes and then took the kids to Promontory point.

Meanwhile our awesome neighbors are getting their house ready to rent, and are letting us use the kitchen!  When it isn't raining (oh...my....gosh) we take our dishes over there, and sometimes use the oven.  It's so close, and there was already a path between the houses.

I love it that we don't have to use paper plates or plastic utensils!  The trip is so weird that the kids like to help, lol.  "Who wants to take the dishes to the dishwasher???"  Kael is usually the one who volunteers.


While we wait for cabinets, Zach has figured out how to build a shower for our master bathroom!

He's using Schluter Kerdi boards, which are some new waterproof material that's really strong, and easy to work with.  He loves the stuff.  I'm really impressed!

Putting it back together

We're finally past the tearing apart stage and now we're putting things back together.

Boys' first time painting with a roller.

Before tile.

We got to cut some funky floor pieces.

 And here's the finished floor.  It was a literal pain in the neck to put in... I haven't been able to bend or turn my head for the last five days. I finally went to a chiropractor and after two hours of trying to loosen up my muscles enough to do that neck pop thing, he said he'd never seen anything like it and gave up. Ha!  Well, thank goodness for Ibuprofen.

 We moved in the day after we put in the floor. The kids are supposed to be unpacking their rooms.  They know what needs to be done... it's not their first rodeo.  They aren't in a hurry to get their stuff though, when there are other cool things to distract them.

 I actually have a pretty functional kitchen!  A few tables, fridge, shelves, dishes, dishwasher, sink, dining table, toaster, microwave, oven, griddle.  We thought we'd barbecue, but... snow! Ha-- talk about January 99th.

 We're pretty sure we've gotten all the nails out of the floor.  We'll finish putting in the vinyl when the cabinets are in.  So far, I'm not really missing them.  The cabinet guy said April 29th, but I'm not holding my breath.  When he came to pick up a trim piece to measure with, he noted that we were already living in the house.  I was all ready to tell him it wasn't actually that bad, when he told me how as a child his family lived in a little house with no plumbing, no electricity, and no shingles while his dad was very sick for four years.  They lived off only what they grew in their garden. I told him I hope he'll write a memoir.  And his story worked-- I'm that much more grateful for my plumbing and electricity.  And Costco. :D

Off yer lazy bums, kids

Spring break is going to be a whole different animal for these kids this year.  It only took about thirty minutes of whining from the usual whiners (I'm huuuungry, this is too haaaard!) before we finally got into a working groove.  Zach likes to play the Guardians of the Galaxy station on Pandora while we work, so my kids sing along to a lot of 70's and early 80's songs.  Today we got all the trim and baseboards off and sanded them down.  We were going to paint some white but I'm sick of white trim, and I was worried about having some white and some dark, and this is really pretty oak... I didn't want to cover the grain.  So we're staining it all the same dark Kona brown.  It'll pretty much look black.

My mom is a sanding rockstar.  I hope I can sand like that when I'm in my 70s.  ;D

 I've already put in a few days of sanding, so I didn't care that I had the most fun job today.  Cutting the nails off. Good thing my dad didn't come, or he would have gotten it. ;D

The ceiling is now white.  Instead of slightly pinkish white.

Pick your favorite

Mia and I sanded down all this trim for re-staining.  It probably needs another go-over.

I took one of the pieces that we hope is extra and tried our the same Kona color that we had on our cabinets in Mapleton.  People noted that they hadn't been able to tell whether or not those cabinets were black or dark brown in pictures, but that it was easy to tell they were brown in person.

Which one is your favorite?

Ahhh, lighting.  It's everything.  Our next kitchen will look nothing like the Mapleton one.  We're kind of being led by the house this time, instead of pulling our favorite theories out of thin air.  We're still guessing just as much how it'll all turn out, though.  Slightly nerve-wracking.

 So I have to tell the story about this picture of Cambria Quartz sample.  When you're choosing colors and materials with Ivory, (and you are being paid about half your profession's income because you're on trial period,) your choices are very limited, ha.  I was really happy with what we were able to choose in Mapleton, but when I saw this sample in Costco, I thought "that's exactly what I would have picked if we could have chosen anything."  And I thought "maybe when we finish the basement someday..." and snapped a pic as I walked by.













The same thing happened when I saw this bathroom in a model home.  This Turkish tile was exactly what I would have chosen if we could choose anything.  I snapped a pic and thought of finishing the basement again.

















Less than a year later, we're remodeling a completely different home.  80 miles north of where we thought we'd spend the rest of our lives, inspired by archiecture 2,000 miles away in the American south, (which was inspired by France and Greece, so why not use tile originating from Turkey, lol.)  I went to the same tile store where we'd chosen our granite slab for Mapleton, remembering how many design ideas I'd loved there.  Lo and behold... there was the tile I'd admired so much.

Weeks before that I'd shown the Cambria sample pic to the Costco salesman, who recognized it immediately.  We're actually using both my dream materials in this remodel! I'm pretty excited!